Electrical computers and digital processing systems: interprogra – Interprogram communication using message – Object oriented message
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-29
2004-10-12
Lee, Thomas (Department: 2126)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: interprogra
Interprogram communication using message
Object oriented message
C717S106000, C717S107000, C717S108000, C717S116000, C717S117000, C717S137000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06804818
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to system managed message and object exchanges, and more particularly to an integration mechanism for sending and receiving anonymous invocations.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the continuing growth of distributed systems, such as, the Internet or computer networks, electronic communication has become increasingly more important. Objects in distributed systems communicate by sending requests or messages to known objects. Each request or message denotes the invocation of a method on the known object. To reply to a request or message, an object may send an object or objects as a return value of the invocation or as the value of one or more of the invocation's out parameters. One characteristic of this paradigm is that the sending object and the receiving object are coupled by the given request or message. Each object is aware of the other object's identity in a one-to-one relationship, and the interaction is inherently synchronous.
Message oriented middleware is related to sending messages. The messages convey some application specific data that are sent with no specific or even necessarily known individual receiver defined. Rather, such messages are collected in some form of destination, for example, a queue, to be consumed by other applications that are clients of the messaging system. Messages may be replied to by sending yet another message that is correlated to the initial message. Clients or users of the messaging system are not necessarily aware of each other's existence, and the interaction between peer clients is inherently asynchronous. The decoupling of the sender and receiver may be thought of as using anonymous invocations.
For example, Enterprise Java™ Bean (EJB) components which are distributed objects that adhere to the EJB component specification and that consequently communicate with clients or users and with each other via synchronous method calls, can benefit from the added flexibility offered by a message based, asynchronous interface, that is from using anonymous invocations. EJBs may then be assembled with clients and peers using both styles of interaction, i.e., synchronous and asynchronous. Further, EJBs are capable of reacting to messages originating outside the EJB (or other component) based application, such as an existing message-based applications, or integrated set of applications.
As entities move toward integrating existing applications and developing new applications, middleware which provides a coherent and easy to use integration capability has become increasingly more important. Primarily two styles of integration middleware exist into which most products may be classified. These styles include message oriented middleware (MOMW) and object oriented middleware (OOMW). Each style addresses different aspects of the integration problem. MOMW provides easy integration of existing applications with minimal modification and needs only a small amount of additional code. New applications can be built with OOMW which integrate substantially unmodified existing applications represented as objects with new, top-down designed objects possibly based on models. Each of the two identified styles has unique strengths which make one of the styles more preferable in different situations.
While it has been attempted to employ MOMW and OOMW together, e.g., application adapters, embedding MQ code within Business Objects, a unified component model does not exist which provides a coherent and easy way to combine the two styles.
Therefore, a need exists for a unified component model for middleware integration which employs the advantages of both OOMW and MOMW. A further need exists for an integration mechanism which provides for easy implementation of anonymous invocations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, methods are included, which may be implemented by employing a program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for anonymously integrating an object oriented software component with message oriented clients. A method is included for anonymously integrating object-oriented software components and message-oriented clients wherein a first object-oriented component performs the steps of performing invocations which are serviced by one of message-oriented clients and object-oriented components and servicing the invocations which are performed by one of the message-oriented clients and the object-oriented components such that the first object-oriented component is unaware that the invocations are performed and serviced by one of the message-oriented clients and the object-oriented components.
In alternate methods, which may be implemented using a program storage device, the step of receiving asynchronous replies to the invocations performed by the first object-oriented component by employing a helper object may be included. The helper object may include a result proxy object or a callback proxy object. The step of replying to the invocations serviced by the first object-oriented component by performing separate invocations may be included. The step of receiving asynchronous replies to the invocations performed by the first object-oriented component by receiving separate invocations may be included. The invocations may be received and serviced synchronously by the first object-oriented component. The steps of requesting to receive the invocations by the first object-oriented component and receiving the invocation pursuant to the request by the first object-oriented component may be included. The first object-oriented component preferably includes at least one message bean. The step of servicing the invocations may include the step of creating an instance to obscure sender information of the invocations by employing a message proxy to interface between the first object-oriented component and a destination of the invocations. The invocations preferably include java™ message system messages, and the method may further include the step of providing a message bean listener for adapting the java™ message system messages for performance by the first object-oriented component.
In accordance with the present invention, further methods are included, which may be implemented by employing a program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for anonymously performing and servicing invocations. One method for anonymously performing and servicing invocations includes the steps of providing an object-oriented message bean listener for receiving and replying to invocations from a source destination, permitting a message bean to obtain an instance of a message proxy on which the message bean invokes a method to associate the invocation with a target destination, replying to the message bean from the message proxy, when the message bean expects a reply to the invocation, wherein the message bean is unaware of the identity of one of a message-oriented client and an objection-oriented component that one of services and performs the invocation.
In alternate methods, which may be implemented by employing a program storage device, the step of storing message formats that are mapped to and from signatures for methods to be implemented by message proxies and message beans may be included. The step of replying to the message bean may include the step of replying by performing separate invocations by employing a helper object. The step of replying to the message bean may include the step of receiving asynchronous replies to the invocations performed by the message bean by employing a helper object. The step of replying to the message bean may include the step of receiving asynchronous replies to the invocations performed by the message bean by receiving separate invocations. The invocations may be received and serviced synchronously by the message bean. The steps of requesting to rec
Codella Christopher F.
Ferguson Donald F.
Silva-Lepe Ignacio
Anya Charles
F. Chau & Associates LLC
International Business Machines - Corporation
Lee Thomas
LandOfFree
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